Quinoa Almond Milk Pudding with Dried Cherries and Honey {recipe}

Why is it that we don’t normally think of oatmeal as anything but sweet and breakfast, and we don’t normally think of quinoa as anything but savory and lunch?

I don’t know why.

I always prefer savory tastes over sweet. Even for dessert. I’d rather have a cheese plate. And with the few times I’ve eaten oatmeal (outside the Oatmeal Project), I’ve always tried to eat what most people take with brown sugar and cinnamon, with salt or soy sauce (I know, this is grossing so many of you out right now).

So this might be the only way I will eat quinoa with a little bit of a sweet bent during the entire 30 Days of Quinoa (except plain cooked quinoa with just fresh fruit which I don’t consider “sweet.”). I warmed quinoa with almond milk (if you don’t already have cooked quinoa, you could probably actually cook the quinoa in the almond milk, though I have not tried this, so please don’t get mad at me if it turns out weird).

I added chia and flaxseeds for texture and body, and stirred in honey and dried cherries (we tried to find toasted almonds in our pantry, but they have gone missing). The chia seeds gave this a pudding-like texture, so if you really want to go for it, add a lot more honey and this could be a dessert.

If this were the height of summer, fresh cherries and other stone fruits would be ideal.

Even without the addition of honey and dried fruit, the quinoa/chia/flax mix with almond milk alone is pretty good. I’d hit it with some salt :)

Quinoa Almond Milk Pudding with Dried Cherries and Honey

For every 1 cup of cooked quinoa:

Bring ¾ cup almond milk to just before boiling on the stovetop. Remove from heat. Add quinoa, 1 tablespoon each of chia seeds and flax seeds, and a pinch of salt. Stir, and let sit for a few minutes, until the chia seeds “plump.”

Top with a generous drizzle of honey, a handful of dried (or fresh pitted) cherries, and some toasted almonds (which we didn’t have, but it was part of the plan).